Queensbury Tunnel
Evocative images taken at the mouth of Victorian Britain's longest train tunnel
A forbidding wall of steam proves no deterrent to an express train entering what was then Britain's longest rail tunnel, moments before a goods train exits. This evocative Victorian film was one of many to exploit the filmic potential and public appetite for images of steam travel.
Built in the mid-1870s by Great Northern Railways, the Queensbury Tunnel was a triumph of Victorian engineering, burrowing through over a mile of Pennine rock to establish a railway connection between Halifax and Bradford and Keighley. These images were taken at the Northern end of the tunnel by the Yorkshire-based production company Riley Brothers. The Queensbury Tunnel was taken out of commission in 1956 and now lies derelict. In 2014 a local campaign was launched to rebuild the tunnel as a cycle route.
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The Grand Tour
The Victorian age witnessed a transport revolution, but even at the end of Victoria's reign, overseas travel was still beyond the reach of many. Films, though, could transport their audiences to distant lands.
Filmmakers followed the indispensable Baedeker guides (the Lonely Planet of its day), presenting their own vicarious 'Grand Tour': from Vienna to Venice, from Niagara to the Nile. And with most people seldom venturing far from their homes, images of Britain's own varied landscape carried a taste of the exotic. One spectacular innovation - the 'phantom ride', filmed from a moving vehicle - gave audiences the sensation of the journey itself.
77 videos in this collection
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Panorama of the Paris Exhibition No. 3
3
Conway Castle - panoramic view of Conway on the L.& N.W. Railway
4
A Sea Cave near Lisbon
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Pope Leo XIII Being Seated Bestowing Blessing
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Fisherman and Boat at Port Said
7
Women Fetching Water from the Nile
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Stonehenge - Panorama of the Ancient Druidical Remains
9
Panorama of Niagara Falls
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Cinematographic View of the Royal Albert Bridge (1901)
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Phantom Ride - Chamonix
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Patrick Street, Cork
13
Boys Bathing - Venice
14
Opening of the Kiel Canal
15
Cunard Mail Steamer Lucania Leaving For America (1901)
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Panorama around the Eiffel Tower
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Tram Journey through Southampton
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Railway Ride over the Tay Bridge
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A Steamship Passes By
20
Panorama of Calcutta, India, From the River Ganges.
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Railway Traffic
22
Beautiful Panorama of Railway Ride from St. Germans to Millbay (1901)
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Rocky Shore
24
Churned Waters
25
The Mount Pilatus Railway
26
Gang Making Railway - South Africa
27
Queensbury Tunnel
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Royal Train
29
Tetherball, Or Do-do
30
Up the River
31
Railway Traffic on the L.N.W.R.
32
Ox Wagon
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Greasy Pole Game aboard Ship
34
Comic Scene on Board Ship
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Panorama - Windsor Castle
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Pleasure Steamers on a River
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The 'Bluff', Durban
38
Ships Coming to Anchor, South Africa
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Pope Leo XIII Leaving Carriage and Being Ushered Into Garden
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Adderley Street, Cape Town
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Ship at Sea
42
Bangor Yacht Race
43
Buxton Skyline (1901)
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A Ride on the Peak Tramway
45
Sports on Board Ship
46
Panoramic View of the Morecambe Sea Front (1901)
47
Street
48
Ride on a Tram Car through Belfast (1901)
49
Mailboat Munster Arriving at Holyhead from Dublin
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Hirse Buses - Oxford St Marble Arch 1
51
Liverpool As Seen from the Front of an Electric Car from the Pierhead to the Circus (1901)
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Pope Leo XIII in Carriage
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Over the Tay Bridge on an Express Train (1901)
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Daniels No. 7
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View from an Engine Front - Barnstaple
56
Phantom Ride on the Furness Railway (1901)
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Pope Leo XIII Carried through the Vatican Loggia on His Way to the Sistine Chapel
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Pope Leo XIII Walking At Twilight Through Some Favourite Haunt In the Gardens
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Thames River Scenery - Panorama of the Crowded River
60
Rochdale Tram Ride (1905)
61
Scene on Mr. N. Smit's Ostrich Farm, Impanzi, Natal, South Africa
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S.S. Saxonia in Liverpool (1901)
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Ship Departing from Port (c.1901)
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Shipping on the Thames
65
Train Tunnel
66
The Vatican Guards, Rome
67
Waves Breaking on a Pier
68
Washing the Sweep
69
Trip to North Wales on the St Elvies (1902)
70
Dignitaries Coming down Gang Plank
71
Clyde Regatta
72
Through Miller's Dale (Near Buxton, Derbyshire) Midland Railway
73
Railway Track Viewed from Train
74
Wall Collection
75
Menai Bridge - The Irish Day Mail from Euston Entering the Tubular Bridge over the Menai Straits
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Boat Passengers Embarking
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